Found Footage, The Beginnings
Shortly after finish my book on micro budget film making I got challenged by a friend to do a book on Found Footage film making. Like most people I did not believe that there was much to be discussed about this topic, but a challenge is a challenge and I began the process of reviewing as many of these films as I could find. One year and over two hundred films later I have finished the book and now have a greater respect for the genre.
This blog is dedicated to the found footage film. Both classic and new. Understand that this will not be your standard review site. I am a film maker, I will approach most films from that view point. I will try to explain why some films worked and why others failed. There are reasons why movies connect and do not connect with an audience. I will try to point these reasons out why listing these films.
The first film that I will look at is the Cannibal Holocaust. There were a few films that could be considered found footage before this one, but I believe that this is the one that set the standard.
The first thing that I love about this film is that it tries to come across as a pure documentary with behind the scenes choices that the film makers make that are shocking. You must see the film to understand what I am taking about. Secondly this movie was banded in many counties for decades because of the acts of animal cruelty on display in this film. If you are an animal lover and watching them being mercilessly
butchered on camera would sicken you then do not watch this film. The movie is populated by characters that have no interest in being liked by you the viewing audience. They are a-holes and never for a second show another side of their personalities, because there is not other side. While one of their little film crew is being raped and murder by the natives their only goal is to make sure that they get it on camera.
I will not spoil the ending except to say that everyone gets what is coming to them. Well except for a certain native tribe who I hope got small pox and died after the filming of this one.
As a film this movie does a few things extremely well.
It sticks to the subject. There are no subplots and unless you are making a thriller most film makers should avoid them.
Secondly, the style of film making sets the standard for every found footage film to follow. Slowly and steadily the walls between subject and camera break down until the ones behind the camera invade the world that they are recording and then are invaded by that world.
It is pure found footage. There was no way for this to turn out any other way and this does not at all feel forced. So many found footage films have their characters go brain dead in act three so that they will end up laying dead beside their cameras. How it ends feels nature and that it could have turned out no other way.
Cannibal Holocaust is not a great film, but in its genre, found footage, it may be the best film.
In closing I would ask that you book make this site. Stumble it on stumbleupon and share a post with a friend. I would also like to announce that I am a few weeks from the release of my book on how to make a found footage film. No one has tackled this subject before and I believe that I have done a good job. The book will also feature interviews with film makers who have shoot found footage films. I believe that the best way to learn about a subject is to go to those who are actually doing the work. I believe film making is learned best by actually doing it rather than in a classroom.
Thank you for visiting and have a nice day.
Shortly after finish my book on micro budget film making I got challenged by a friend to do a book on Found Footage film making. Like most people I did not believe that there was much to be discussed about this topic, but a challenge is a challenge and I began the process of reviewing as many of these films as I could find. One year and over two hundred films later I have finished the book and now have a greater respect for the genre.
This blog is dedicated to the found footage film. Both classic and new. Understand that this will not be your standard review site. I am a film maker, I will approach most films from that view point. I will try to explain why some films worked and why others failed. There are reasons why movies connect and do not connect with an audience. I will try to point these reasons out why listing these films.
The first film that I will look at is the Cannibal Holocaust. There were a few films that could be considered found footage before this one, but I believe that this is the one that set the standard.
The first thing that I love about this film is that it tries to come across as a pure documentary with behind the scenes choices that the film makers make that are shocking. You must see the film to understand what I am taking about. Secondly this movie was banded in many counties for decades because of the acts of animal cruelty on display in this film. If you are an animal lover and watching them being mercilessly
butchered on camera would sicken you then do not watch this film. The movie is populated by characters that have no interest in being liked by you the viewing audience. They are a-holes and never for a second show another side of their personalities, because there is not other side. While one of their little film crew is being raped and murder by the natives their only goal is to make sure that they get it on camera.
I will not spoil the ending except to say that everyone gets what is coming to them. Well except for a certain native tribe who I hope got small pox and died after the filming of this one.
As a film this movie does a few things extremely well.
It sticks to the subject. There are no subplots and unless you are making a thriller most film makers should avoid them.
Secondly, the style of film making sets the standard for every found footage film to follow. Slowly and steadily the walls between subject and camera break down until the ones behind the camera invade the world that they are recording and then are invaded by that world.
It is pure found footage. There was no way for this to turn out any other way and this does not at all feel forced. So many found footage films have their characters go brain dead in act three so that they will end up laying dead beside their cameras. How it ends feels nature and that it could have turned out no other way.
Cannibal Holocaust is not a great film, but in its genre, found footage, it may be the best film.
In closing I would ask that you book make this site. Stumble it on stumbleupon and share a post with a friend. I would also like to announce that I am a few weeks from the release of my book on how to make a found footage film. No one has tackled this subject before and I believe that I have done a good job. The book will also feature interviews with film makers who have shoot found footage films. I believe that the best way to learn about a subject is to go to those who are actually doing the work. I believe film making is learned best by actually doing it rather than in a classroom.
Thank you for visiting and have a nice day.
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